December 13, 2016

Contents

Patch Highlights

Overwatch is getting into the holiday spirit with a brand new seasonal event. For the next three weeks, Hanamura and King's Row will be decked out in holiday lights, we’re introducing a new collection of holiday-themed cosmetic items, you can challenge your friends to a snowball fight, and our Loot Boxes will be and tied with festive bows.

Grab a mug of hot cocoa and jingle all the way to Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland.

Developer Comments: We wanted to address two main issues with Symmetra. First, on the whole, we felt that she didn’t feel active enough. Second, due to the nature of her Teleporter, she felt weak in certain situations on different maps and game modes.

To address the first point, we replaced her more passive Photon Shield ability with a much more active ability: Photon Barrier. Now, Symmetra can help lead the charge on offense or help shut down a big push on defense by actively blocking damage for your team.

For the second point, we noticed players would often switch off of Symmetra once they found themselves in a situation where her Teleporter wasn’t as useful. For example, when playing her on defense on an Assault map, players often used her to defend the first capture point, then quickly switched to another hero if that point fell. To help her feel more useful in more situations, we've given her an alternative to her Teleporter. The Shield Generator is just as important for the enemy to deal with, but is useful in more situations.

The turret changes allow her to rebuild her turret nests faster. Even if all her turrets are wiped out, it's now easier for players to build them all back up before the next push.

We’re also increasing the range on her Photon Projector to make it easier for her to build up and keep a powerful charge on her target.

Developer Comments: This is a bug fix, but we think it's significant enough to warrant a separate note. We've had a long-standing bug that caused "piercing" damage to hit Zarya's barrier twice. Sometimes this benefited Zarya (for example, jumping in front of Reinhardt's Fire Strike was a good way to generate a large amount of energy quickly), and sometimes it really hurt her (Genji’s Dragonblade, for example, would cut through her shield in one swing, instead of two). This change isn’t intended to buff or a nerf to Zarya. We're simply trying get her abilities working as they should, and we’ll keep an eye on how it affects her balance.

Bug Fixes

General

[PS4 Pro] Fixed a bug that could obscure or hide UI elements on a 4K display

Fixed a bug that allowed more than one player to select the same hero on the Assemble Team screen, but forced one player to reselect after spawning

Fixed a bug that forced players to join Play vs. AI matches when attempting to spectate a friend

Fixed a bug causing a black screen to appear if players switched heroes as the round ended

[PC] Fixed a bug that allowed the “H” key to close the Hero Select screen even after that function had been bound to a different key

AI

Bots are no longer able to use abilities or attack enemies after a Control match has ended

[Console] Fixed a bug that prevented Ana from being selected in 1v1 matches

Arcade

Fixed a bug that prevented players from correctly receiving experience after joining an in-progress 3v3 match

Fixed a bug preventing BattleTags from being displayed correctly during Highlight Intros and Plays of the Game in 1v1 and 3v3 matches

Fixed a bug causing the respawn timer to remain visible during 3v3 matches

Competitive Play

Fixed a bug that allowed more than one player to select the same hero in rare situations

Heroes

Fixed a bug preventing the nameplate above D.Va’s mech from disappearing while being destroyed, and displaying a “0” instead of the player’s name

Fixed a bug causing the “You” indicator (which typically only appears during killcam footage) to appear when D.Va looks directly at the ground

D.Va’s video tutorial now includes changes made to her Defense Matrix resource mechanics

Fixed a bug causing Genji’s sword to clip through its scabbard

Fixed a bug causing Junkrat’s Steel Trap animation to play when detonating a Concussion Mine

Fixed a bug causing Reinhardt’s hammer to become invisible to some players after using an emote

Fixed a bug that interfered with the accuracy of the alternate fire for Roadhog’s Scrap Gun

Fixed a bug that allowed players' Ultimate ability voice lines to play uninterrupted, even if they were hacked by Sombra during use

Fixed a bug preventing the sound effects from Torbjörn’s hammer from being played when his Ultimate ability was activated

Fixed a bug causing Widowmaker’s Grappling Hook to begin its cooldown after going through Symmetra’s Teleporter

[Console] Fixed a bug that allowed Mercy to receive Ultimate charge when using her Caduceus Staff to increase teammates’ damage when they’re not damaging enemies

[Console] Fixed a bug preventing Reinhardt from deactivating his Barrier Field after being hacked by Sombra